The Green Spring Branch was the
Baltimore and Susquehanna's original option for getting out of Baltimore when Pennsylvania said no to
going through York on its way to the Susquehanna. Construction out of Baltimore started in
1829, and reached Owings Mills in 1832. The track was strap rail, and
service used horses for power. Service wasn't too popular after the
Western Maryland completed its own mainline into Baltimore from "Turnpike", and it
was almost abandoned except for summer service. Traffic picked up for a
while in 1916 when the branch was used as a bypass during B&P Tunnel repairs.
Passenger service ended in 1933, and the last train to run up the branch was in
1962.

Much of the information provided
here comes from the book "Green Spring Accommodation" by Martin K. Van
Horn and Robert L. Williams, published in 1996 by Transportation Trails.

When the B&S proceeded north to
York, a local quarry provided
stones for the first "ties", or "sleepers" used on this line. For more
info on them click
here.

The junction where the Green Spring
Branch starts (off the mainline to York and Harrisburg) was originally called Relay
House, but later changed to avoid confusion with the B&O's town of a similar name
(Relay) on the southwest side of
Baltimore (see
map6 ). The stop on the B&O was later changed to St Denis.

Most of the line was built at grade
level, there were few exceptions. One place was around the girder bridge
at location #6, were they had to put fill in to cross the creek. Another
place was at the Hillside "bump" (location G on my map), where the topography is
considerably lower and they had to detour in closer to the ridge and put some
fill in to level the route - driving by this location you will notice the road
dipping a fair bit while the right-of-way stays above you, and crosses Hillside
twice.

West of the Stevenson Station,
hardly anything remains that gives a visitor the sense the a railroad ever
existed.

This two section map shows you the proposed connecting track
between Lake Roland and Towson (and the Ma & Pa)
This map was in a 1969 reprint by Baltimore County of original maps from 1877
Toddo here colored the map as a kid, and we grew up where the yellow dot is....
If you drive thru the area, notice the name of the land owners, and you'll
realize where the some of the street names come from!

Originally called "Relay House", this is where the
Green Spring Branch had its beginning
once the mainline to York was built.
At one time, there was a beautiful Station and Hotel located at the junction.
In the bottom Snag, you can still make out the rail-trail right-of-way. The
green line was the Northern Central's main line, and the yellow line is the
branch.

2 Signal Bases

3 Remaining Track

Most of the remaining track leftover from the end of
service was removed in the early 70's? For some unknown reason, this short
section of maybe 300 feet of track was left, maybe the scrappers didn't deem it
worthwhile for the amount of trouble they had to go to in order to get it, or
maybe their truck was filled up and didn't feel this little bit wasn't worth
coming back for... we'll never know! Photo by Adam Paul.

A Various Culverts and "Bridges"

4 Mile Marker 1/7

5 Former Site of the Baltimore Streetcar
Museum

The BSM's original's plan was to have the museum situated
at Lake Roland. They moved the cars to the lake in the mid 60's, but by
1968, a local resident (Mr. Guntrum) on L'Hirondelle Club Road was well
connected with people in the government and forced the BSM to move the cars out
of the park, in fear of the noise that "might" be produced by having a museum
located across the Falls from him. I was fortunate enough to have moved
into the area the summer before the cars moved down to Falls Road, and snapped
these 6 pictures in 1968 before and after the move. It's too bad they had
to move, the site would have been ever so much nicer than where they are now,
especially along the southern part where they would have been running along the
water.

Looking west from Brooklandville Fire Station - this is on
private property

Looking east from the fire station, towards the JFX, I83

Looking west from the rail trail, the R-O-W was to the right
of Falls Road

Looking west from the head of the rail trail, this and the
next shot are from the same spot

Looking east (towards the main line) down the rail trail where
trains once ran

You can just make out the dark cinder surface of the path
through the bare trees from Falls Road

8 Last Business on the Green Spring Branch

When I first moved into Baltimore in 1966, there were still
buildings here, too bad I didn't get pictures of them. This was the last
major business to have rail service and gave the Green Spring
Branch it's last breath of air.

B Bridge Abutment

Well covered by vines, even during the winter months, you
can just barely make out the one abutment at this site for a bridge that went
over a small feeder stream into
the Jones Falls. It is adjacent to the SB entrance ramp of I-83.

Rockland (Brooklandville)

Rockland (later changed to Brooklandville) was a hub of
activity during the 1800's and early 1900's, with grist mill, blacksmith shop,
and numerous rowhomes, with many of the old buildings surviving today. One
of the mills still has an original (but non-functioning) water wheel in place
(on the SW corner). The picture on the left shows a row of homes as I am
driving SB on Falls Road before hitting the traffic light at Old Court / Ruxton
Roads. The other two aerial shots show Rockland, and the close-up is of
the mill. Before the Jones Falls Expressway (JFX) was built, Old Court
Road used to come all the way across, now it ends on Ruxton Road at the top of
the NB exit ramp off of the JFX, and continues west at the traffic light.
A little bit of additional info is
here.

9 Brooklandville Station

One of two surviving stations on the Green Spring Branch, it
is at the corner of Falls and Hillside Roads.

Aerial shot with north on your right.

The Valley Inn, across Falls Road from the Brooklandville Station. It used
to be a popular spot when the railroad ran.

Looking east from the corner of Falls and Hillside, away
from the station.

Looking south on Falls Road, the station is to the right.

A small culvert going under the branch's tracks at the end of
the platform along Falls Road.

C Bridge Abutments

This is the first set of small bridge abutments west of the
Brooklandville Station, listed as bridge #3.81.

D Bridge Abutments

Being that everything is in sequential guide, this is the
next set of small abutments, listed in other guides as bridge #4.21.

10 Rogers Station

Located just to the west of Greenspring Ave. If this is the remains of the station, it was probably just
a covered shed type. And the concrete footers may have been for signals.
The left photo is looking west towards Reisterstown Rd, and the right photo is
looking east towards the Brooklandville Station.

E Bridge Abutments

This set of abutments is just west of the above location. The two photos on the right are
views down the right of way, the one on the right is looking towards the Rogers
station, and Greenspring Ave can be seen in the distance.

F Bridge Abutments

A pair "new" looking concrete abutments at Spring Ave, and
two shots looking east, the middle photo is looking right down the middle of
where the right of way used to be.... I'm guessing the house was around when
trains went rambling by. From the air, you can't see any evidence of where
the tracks used to be.

G Bridge Abutments

A pair of nice stone bridge abutments surviving just west
of the street signs, up until maybe ten years ago, there used to be tracks
crossing the pavement in the photo on the right, which is maybe 300-400 feet
east of the abutments (in the picture we're looking west).

H Bridge Abutments

Just east of the Stevenson Station is another building that
was probably around since the turn of the last century, complete with a small
creek running under part of it, which is what this small bridge jumped over.
There is also a short piece of rail sticking up out of the ground, held in
firmly by the tree roots.

11 Stevenson Station

Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an
expert. My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page.
This is something I have fun with while trying to help others. My
webpages are an attempt at putting everything I can find of the subject in
one convenient place. There are plenty of other good websites to help
me in this effort, and they are listed in the links section on my indexa
page, or as needed on individual pages. Please do not write to me
about something that may be incorrect, and then hound the heck out of me if
I do not respond to you in the manner you would like. I operate on the
"Golden Rule Principle", and if you are not familiar with it, please
acquaint yourself with how to treat people by reading Mathew 7:12 (among
others, the principle exists in almost every religion). If you contact
me (like some do, hi Paul) and try to make it a "non-fun" thing and start
with the name calling, your name will go into my spambox list! :-)

Please Note:
Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides
are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. For those
of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my
indexa page has a list of
almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to
help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has
been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this
railfan guide is correct. Once in a while, an error may creep in,
especially if restaurants or gas stations open, close, or change names.
Most of my maps are a result of personal observation after visiting these
locations. I have always felt that a picture is worth a thousand words",
and I feel annotated maps such as the ones I work up do the same justice for the
railfan over a simple text description of the area. Since the main focus
of my website is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the
signal fan being able to locate them. Since most of us railheads don't have just
trains as a hobby, I have also tried to point out where other interesting sites
of the area are.... things like fire stations, neat bridges, or other
significant historical or geographical feature. While some may feel they
shouldn't be included, these other things tend to make MY trips a lot more
interesting.... stuff like where the C&O Canal has a bridge going over a river (the Monocacy Aqueduct) between Point of Rocks and Gaithersburg MD, it's way cool to
realize this bridge to support a water "road" over a river was built in the
1830's!!!

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a
thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only
get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented. Take
along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still
better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get
local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts
out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their
state maps do not have the railroads on them. If you can find em,
I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and
concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where
tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.
Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels
inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have
something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info
is here

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as
being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.